Philanthropy and client foundations

• With the support of the program "Pioneer Fellowship" of the ETH Zurich, the "Verena Guggisberg-Lüthi" fund promotes entrepreneurship. Irene Wüthrich PhD is researching antibiotic resistance and intends to use the research project "SpheroBiotics" to benefit society as well. The fund supports the intention to start a business.
  

• Supports a number of charitable projects contributing to the conservation and improvement of endangered habitats and to helping the animals that live in them, as well as projects aimed at biodiversity conservation.

• Promotes chess in Switzerland as well as supporting related activities with a link to Switzerland in other countries. The support provided by the foundation extends to chess championships, coaching for young chess talents, chess exhibitions and public-relations activities around the sport.

• Supports clinical research projects in the area of cancer and stem cells.

• Supports projects that identify leukemia therapy tailored to children.

• Supports projects researching the causes of Alzheimer's or dealing with therapeutic aspects of the disease.

• Finances projects that help sustain the last original tropical forests in Madagascar, Borneo and the Amazon region and which help the local population of these areas in establishing a livelihood.

• Supports projects that aim to enable elderly people to lead a more autonomous life and that contribute to the dialogue between different generations.

• Contributes to the education of disadvantaged children from Rio de Janeiro's poorest neighborhoods.
• Finances the construction of hospitals with maternity wards in Eritrea, providing a safe place for women to give birth to their children.

Beauty group Luxasia wanted a corporate responsibility strategy that aligned with its business. With SymAsia's help, the company supported a specially designed program focused on the rehabilitation of women ex-​offenders by helping them build new professional skills. The Singapore-​based Empowerment of Women Initiative resulted in the following:

• Disadvantaged women are empowered with new skills and assisted with job placements.
• Luxasia's founder and employees bond through active participation in the program.
  
• Luxasia enjoyed positive media coverage that helped build up its brand equity.
  

Following the success of the pilot project in Singapore, the Empowerment of Women Initiative has expanded to the company's overseas branches and become its flagship corporate responsibility program.

Indonesian property developer Dr. Stephen Riady is a well-​known philanthropist. Using the SymAsia platform, he decided to set up a personal foundation and individual corporate foundations for his various businesses. These are grouped under a single brand, the "Stephen Riady Group of Foundations". This group branding is reflected on Dr. Riady's philanthropy website.

Today, the Stephen Riady Group of Foundations consists of seven foundations in Singapore and Hong Kong, with SymAsia helping to streamline the Group's charitable giving. Key causes supported are in the areas of education as well as humanitarian and social development.

The current COVID-19 crisis has brought donors together in an exceptional manner. As the pandemic wreaks havoc all over the globe – not just on our collective physical, mental and financial health, but also disrupting care services to vulnerable populations in our midst – philanthropists the world over have stepped in to fill some of the gaps.

At SymAsia Foundation, about one-third of donors have responded in diverse ways to the many challenges brought to the fore by the novel coronavirus outbreak, ranging from urgent food aid for impoverished families in Sri Lanka to research into how to make protective face masks less painful for nurses tending to patients in Singapore. In early 2020, SymAsia team helped donors provide philanthropic funding across three key areas to assist in COVID-19 efforts in the APAC region:

• Emergency relief: Moved by the courage of frontline health workers and the plight of marginalized communities, donors gave generously through medical and food supplies. This included a "Buka Puasa" campaign to ensure that Muslim healthcare professionals and vulnerable families are still able to observe Ramadan appropriately during this challenging season.
• Caring for vulnerable communities: Social distancing measures and the stress on our economies meant that some vulnerable populations might fall through the cracks. Donors contributed towards financial aid for students whose families were affected, provided thermometers for isolated elderly people so they could monitor their health, and established telehealth services for migrant workers. They also supported social enterprises and ensured essential care services could continue at charities despite the disruptions in fundraising and volunteer activities.
• Long-term protection: Besides supporting tests on how to make protective face masks less painful for frontline health workers, SymAsia donors are also contributing towards the development of a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.